Harden credits attitude for streak

With James Harden on a roll unmatched in his career — with three consecutive 40-point games, seven straight 35-point games and nine consecutive games scoring at least 30 — he said he has no intention of slowing.

“You can’t settle,” Harden said. “Never can settle, never can be satisfied. I always want more.”

With Harden averaging a career-high 33 points per game, an average that would be the most in the NBA for a full season since

Kobe Bryant averaged 35.4 in the 2005-06 season, coach Mike D’Antoni said he has learned how to adjust to Harden.

“I just sit back and enjoy it,” D’Antoni said. “He does things that are just phenomenal. He is phenomenal. Just relax and watch him. He’s great.”

Harden, who had said he wants to be remembered as one of the alltime greats, said the key to the run has been working on his conditioning and shots between games and maintaining the same mindset during games.

“I just try to continue to be aggressive, be aggressive and have confidence in the shots and the things I do on the court,” Harden said. “There’s no other way to put it.”

Home is where the wins are

When the Rockets face the Grizzlies on Monday, they will seek to complete an unbeaten month at home, having won their first eight in Toyota Center.

This is nothing new. Over the past three seasons, they have lost three home games in December. But this season, that has been crucial to turn around the season and a goal when they returned to start December.

“Absolutely. The No. 1 thing is to protect home court,” guard Gerald

Green said. “For us to be able to do that this month has always been a key. But that’s something we should be able to build on, too. Hopefully, we can have a month like that in January, February, March and April. That’s what we’re looking forward to. Right now, we feel like we’re taking the right steps to be the team we need to be.”

The Rockets went 34-7 at home last season. They are 12-5 at home this season, but that represents a considerable turnaround after dropping their first four home games.

“We lost some games we definitely shouldn’t have lost here,” Green said. “Even on the road, we lost some games we shouldn’t have lost.”

House’s prayer is answered

Forward Danuel House Jr. had no choice when he put up a falling 3-pointer, flung from his chest to beat the shot clock Saturday. He was not surprised when it went in.

“I work on difficult shots,” he said. “Just playing around, I work on one-legs, left and right, shooting across the body, just working on stuff. I knew it was in though. That’s why I started backpedaling.”